Fourth Down
by noob7
Summary: Football AU: It is the school's first year of establishing a football team, but they are in dire need of a coach. So far, no one is qualified for the job...until a man named Mark, a retired military strategist, comes along. However, dealing with unenthusiastic kids who have never played a sport in their lives is more than he bargained for. It's going to be one long season...
1. The First Practice

Finally, after an entire day of walking back and forth across the enormous campus of St. Faia Embrim Academy, Mark found the place he was looking for: the head coach's office. This was the school's first year of starting a football team, and none of the other teachers were experienced when it came to coaching. And when they had some people who attempted to take the job, they were either too old and on the verge of retirement, or just had no idea what they were doing. So when Mark, who at the time was jobless, penniless, and a recovering alcoholic due to the declining economy, received word of the school's plight, he was immediately drawn to the opportunity like a moth to a flame. Yes, months of binge drinking have done a number on his brain cells as well as his liver, but he still had the one thing that made him more than capable for this position: military strategy; only instead of an army of soldiers, he would be commanding a team of high school football players. Close enough.

As Mark waited to be called into the coach's office, he thought it strange how such a big and prestigious school as this would be lacking in athletics. What did these students even do in their free time if not sports? Studying? That's just not normal for a run-of-the-mill high school. After a moment or two of waiting, the door to the coach's office opened, and Mark was called inside. The moment he stepped in to the office, he was greeted by an enigmatic redheaded woman and a burly-looking purple-haired man.

"Ah, you must be Mark!" The woman chirped. "Welcome. I cannot explain how happy we are to have you here with us. My name is Anna, this here's my husband Jake. It's so nice to meet you!"

"The pleasure's all mine." Mark chuckled awkwardly as he shook both their hands. "So, what do you..."

"The players are in the weight room. You can go introduce yourself now."

"Er, pardon?"

Jake snorted. "She says to go get acquainted with our team."

"I heard her fine. I'm just…well, I thought you were going to interview me."

"Interview?" Anna rested a finger on her chin as she looked up in deep thought. "Nope, no interview."

"No questions? No background checks? You're not even going to glance at my resume?"

"Uh, no we don't do stuff like that around here."

"Are you sure? But…"

"Look, buddy," Jake stood bent over his desk as he stared down Mark right in the eye. "This is our first time doing something like this. The educational board threatened to close down the school because of our lack of an athletic department, so the kids are getting lazy and physically weak. Our first game is next Friday night and we just don't have the time to conduct no 'fancy' search or complicated process to recruit the finest coaches in the area. Understand?"

"…uh…"

"Look, we need a coach, you got the job, now shut your pipe, and get to work."

"Jake, that's enough! You're going to scare him away!" Anna intervened upon seeing how clearly disturbed Mark was becoming under Jake's cold glare. "Forgive him. He's been a little high strung from the threats of closing down our school. You know how bad the economy is."

"Oh don't I know it…" Mark grumbled.

"Anyway, we'll deal with the difficult application process later. For now, let's take you back so you can meet the kids."

Mark made no response as he wordlessly agreed to be led by Anna and Jake to the weight room. Anna paused in front of the door to retrieve a clipboard from the plastic bin hanging on it.

"This is the list of students who are signed up." She explained. "And let me just say this: they are very excited about this new sports program."

Excited was definitely _not_ the word Mark would use to describe the students' feelings about playing high school football. When Anna opened the door, all Mark could see were kids lounging about on the machines, texting, doing homework, and even sleeping. He was surprised, to say the least, for there were only fourteen of them, four of whom were girls. They didn't even look like a high school football team at all. Maybe this school wasn't so normal after all…

"Hey!" Jake boomed. "Is this a study hall? No? Didn't think so! Get out on the field!"

The students made no argument as they fearfully dropped whatever they were doing and ran straight through the doors that led outside. Jake smirked satisfied to himself and gave Mark a reassuring grin.

"They're all yours, kid. I got them all riled up for ya." He laughed and clapped Mark on the shoulder before walking away.

"Uh thanks, Jake." Mark stuttered. His day had officially just gotten weirder. He was about to leave when he noticed that Anna was still standing in the weight room. Already, a thousand questions were on his mind.

"Why isn't Jake the one coaching these kids?" He couldn't help asking.

Anna laughed. "He is a coach, but he's been so bombarded with paper work that he hasn't gotten a chance to properly 'train' them."

"Oh, I see. And…now that I think about it, what were those girls doing there? Are they cheerleaders?"

"Cheerleaders? Ha, no way! As I said, football is our first sport we've started here. Only a handful of boys signed up, so why not take in a few girls as well? But don't worry about that. I'm sure you'll be surprised. Well, gotta go. Good luck on your first day, Mark!"

As Anna turned and left, Mark pondered what she just said to him. "I think I'm beyond surprised at this point. No… I'm completely dumbfounded…"

* * *

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen." Mark inwardly counted out the number of players present on the field, not that there were many anyways. "Well, it looks like we're all here."

One of the students, a muscular kid with spiked blue hair, raised his hand.

"Hm, yes? Guy in the headband." Mark pointed at him.

"Uh…Ike. And don't take this the wrong way, but…who exactly are you?"

"I'm one of the new coaches here. My name is Mark D'Tactician. But you may call me Coach Mark."

"Okay…Coach Mark. Are you…actually going to make us do stuff?"

"Of course. That's my job."

Mark heard someone snort from the crowd, and noticed a girl with green hair in a ponytail trying to hold in her laughter.

"Young lady, what's so funny?" He questioned with a frown.

"You do realize this is a joke, right?" She said sarcastically. "The only reason we're doing this is because the school's going downhill, and it's suddenly up to us to keep it from doing so."

"Well, that's…"

"She's right." A boy with dark, red hair spoke up. "Everyone's already expecting us to fail."

"You won't know if you never try." Mark was beginning to get fed up with these kids' negativity.

"Seriously, this is all a waste of time. The entire student body is pretty much laughing at us."

"ALL RIGHT! LISTEN TO ME!" Mark shouted, instantly grabbing everyone's attentions. "You wanna know what's more pathetic than your athletic program? YOUR ATTITUDES!"

No one responded.

"So what if they laugh at you? So what if you're already destined to fail miserably? That doesn't mean you quit before you begin!" The military side of his personality that he thought he drank away a long time ago was returning…and with a vengeance. "Now listen carefully; I am going to turn you rag-tag group of deadbeats into a team of unstoppable warriors. I don't care how much blood, sweat, and tears it's gonna take. I will not tolerate whining, protesting, arguing, or any form of ridiculous excuse you can come up with. By the time I'm done with you, you are going to be champions! Mark my words…do you understand?!"

Dead silence.

"I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"YES SIR!" They shouted.

"Damn straight." Mark sighed. "And enough with this quitter bullshit. It's no wonder everyone's laughing at you. Now, let's get started with a couple of warm up drills. Five laps around the field."

"But…"

"UH-UH! What did I just say? No protesting!"

The teens grumbled incoherently to one another as they unwillingly began to run their laps. Mark swore he could overhear a boy with short blue hair calling him an "asshole." They hated him already. Good. From afar, he caught sight of Jake and Anna staring at him with agape expressions on their faces. He couldn't begin to describe the bubbly feeling in his chest when he realized that his lecture was enough to terrify even the "big, strong" Jake himself. He smiled a sinister smile; this was going to be an enjoyably long season.

* * *

**A/N: Because I was bored and this idea suddenly came to me. As for my other story "Altering History"...well, it's not really one of my priorities at the moment :/ if someone else would like to take over the project, then let me know, but I'm not planning on updating it anytime soon.**


	2. A Long Way to Go

By the time their warm up exercises were over and done with, Mark had made the team run up and down the bleachers God-knows-how-many times, crab walk fifty yards and sprint the rest, do fifty push-ups, one hundred jumping jacks, four suicides, and roll across the entire field. Almost half of them were throwing up by the time he let them have a water break. Everyone was pretty much on their hands and knees, crawling to get to the jugs.

"Eiri…ka…" Ike panted, sloppily gulping down a bottle of Powerade. "What…time is it?"

Eirika looked down at her watch; she could barely see through her hazy vision. "Uh…four-forty-five…"

The entire team groaned. The warm up drills only took up twenty minutes of their practice, and they still had a whole hour and fifteen minutes left to go.

"I'm going to die." Roy mumbled.

At that moment, Mark came walking over, smiling casually as if he didn't notice their suffering. "Okay, everyone. Have a seat on the bench. I'm going to take roll to see if anyone escaped yet."

A chorus of pained grunts came up from the group as they tried to properly situate themselves on the bench; Mark was trying so hard to prevent himself from laughing at their distress.

"Lowell, Marth."

"H…ere…"

"Rudolf, Albyne."

"I go by Alm…and here."

"Okay, Alm. Anteze, Celica."

"Here."

"Chalphy, Sigurd."

"Here…"

"Chalphy, Celice."

"Here."

"Claus, Leaf."

"Here."

"Pherae, Roy."

"Here."

"Caelin, Lyndis."

"Here…Lyn please."

"Got it. Pherae, Eliwood."

"Here."

"Ostia, Hector."

"Yeah."

"Say 'here,' Hector."

"Yeah."

"I'm about to make you and the whole team run."

"HECTOR!"

"Okay, fine. Here."

"Thank you. Renais, Eirika."

"Here."

"Renais, Ephraim."

"Here."

"Greil, Ike."

"…here…"

"Glad to see you're still with us, Headband. And…Daien, Micaiah."

"Here."

"Well, you guys certainly have some…interesting names for sure." Mark commented, putting the clipboard away.

"'Mark' is pretty odd-sounding itself, if you ask me." Lyn muttered, which earned a couple laughs from her teammates. She caught Mark's eye and for a second, she thought she was going to be threatened with more laps. Instead, he gave her a humorous smile and laughed along with them. This caught everyone by surprise. Was this the same Mark who was barking and swearing at them to get their asses moving twenty minutes earlier?

"Very funny, Lyn." Mark said, then began to address the whole team. "Okay, before we start doing the 'fun' drills, we're going to discuss the fundamentals of football, since this is your first year playing. The goal is to—"

"Get the ball into the end zone." Ike cut in.

Mark looked at him stunned. "Well, it seems you're not that ignorant about football. Yes, we get the ball into the end zone. Good job, Ike. But what is the most important thing you can do in football?" Ephraim raised his hand. "Ephraim?"

"Tackle people." He responded.

"Well, yes that is important. But not what I was looking for. Anyone else?" Ephraim raised his hand again. "Yes, Ephraim?"

"Breaking the other players' bones."

"No! That will get you kicked out of the season, and just make you look bad. So what is the correct answer I'm looking for?" Ephraim raised his hand yet again. "If it has to do with injuring, fighting, committing acts of violence against, or _murdering _the opposing players, I don't want to hear it." Ephraim put his hand down. "Come on, people! What is it?" Mark swore he could hear crickets chirping. He mentally slapped himself. "Teamwork! You're going to have to work properly with each other so you can function wholly as a team. Otherwise, you will never get a touchdown, thus you will never win. So for this next drill, we are going to practice working together with each other. When I call your name, come onto the field. Marth…"

* * *

Once everyone's name had been called, Mark divided the players into two teams. Team Fire consisted of Marth, Celica, Celice, Roy, Eliwood, Eirika, and Ike while Team Emblem consisted of Alm, Sigurd, Leaf, Lyn, Hector, Ephraim, and Micaiah. Mark looked pleased with the way the teams were divided, and blew his whistle before explaining their drill.

"This is going to be a fake football game." He began. "You don't have to worry about plans or official positions…yet. For now, one team is going to start off with the ball at the thirty yard line and try to get it into the end zone. The other team will be on the defensive. You will have four chances to score before the ball is turned over to the other team. Everyone except for Ephraim is allowed to tackle."

"What?!" Ephraim yelped disheartened.

Mark ignored him and tossed the ball to Marth. "Here, Lowell. Your team goes first."

Marth caught the ball and looked at it confusedly; what was he supposed to do with it now? Throw it? Everyone else was standing still, unsure of what to do. Mark groaned to himself and blew his whistle.

"What're you standing around for?" He shouted. "Team Emblem, tackle Marth!"

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, it was as if someone flipped the berserk switch, and everyone on the opposite team came charging down Marth and his teammates. Marth flinched and nonchalantly got rid of the ball to prevent being tackled, however Hector had too much momentum built up that he couldn't stop and ran right into him, sending both of them crashing onto the turf.

"Hector, that's a late hit! The refs can penalize you for that!" Mark scolded him.

The ball arched high into the air, then went sailing down and nailed Leaf on the forehead. Leaf momentarily blacked out as he fell to the ground. After a few minutes of seeing stars, he regained consciousness just as the ball landed right into his arms. Before he could process anything, he heard Ike and Roy shout out:

"Leaf has the ball!"

"Get him!"

Leaf barely had any time to react and he instantly found himself buried underneath almost every member of Team Fire. Mark blew his whistle.

"Leaf intercepted the ball. Team Emblem is on the offensive."

"Coach?" Leaf asked weakly. "Can I sit out this round?"

"No, Leaf. You have to learn to take a hit and get right back up."

"Yeah come on, Leaf. Suck it up and be a man." Hector joked.

This comment prompted Leaf to reel his arm back and chuck the ball right in between Hector's legs. He immediately collapsed into a fetal position, clutching his midsection.

"Come on, Hector. Suck it up and be a man." Leaf replied sarcastically; everyone save Hector and Mark snickered at this.

"All right, stop this before everyone gets violent." Mark sighed. "We don't need to start this season off with tensions between our own teammates. Team Emblem, start at the thirty yard line."

The teams complied, and without any problems (though there were a few seconds of bickering between Lyn and Ephraim on who got to be the quarterback first; Mark took care of this by letting Sigurd do it first), everyone was on the field, ready to play. Unfortunately, this was only the calm before the storm.

As soon as Sigurd hiked the ball, Alm called out Celice for being off sides, which led to the two getting into a heated argument with Celica and Leaf backing them up. Eliwood accidentally tripped over Roy's leg, which caused him to stumble and reach his hand out onto a…certain place on Lyn's body for support. Lyn began shouting profanities at him as she chased him all across the field, refusing to listen to his apologies, and Ephraim- as Mark was expecting- had successfully gotten himself into a three-way fight against Ike and Hector. Eirika was trying frantically to pull her brother away from the carnage, but only managed to get herself involved. Sigurd, seeing that none of his teammates were open, threw the ball at Micaiah. However, she wasn't paying attention, and the moment she turned around, the ball hit her squarely in the nose. Mark felt all the color drain from his face as he watched the chaos unfold. To think he was expected to get these students ready before their first game…he would need a godsend. In the end, no one scored because Mark called off the activity and the practice all together. He couldn't risk all of his players becoming too injured and on the verge of hospitalization before next Friday, nor would he want to hear complaints from the kids' parents and a lawsuit from Lyn for sexual harassment. As he called them over to the bench, he could tell that they hadn't yet settled down: Micaiah was nursing a bloody nose. Sigurd looked unimpressed at his team. Alm, Celica, Celice, and Leaf were glaring daggers at each other. Lyn gave Eliwood her infamous death stare. Eirika wasn't all bad with the exception of a few cuts and scrapes. Marth was sore from being tackled by half of his classmates, Roy was attempting to move his leg that his brother had stepped on. Hector, Ike, and Ephraim were all black and blue with bruises.

"Oh boy…" Mark muttered, clearly distressed at the condition of his players. Where was that military Mark when they needed him the most? "So much for communication. Let's…go over why this simple activity turned into a clusterfuck. But first…Ephraim, why did you get into a fight against Ike and Hector, two men bigger than you, by yourself?"

"I don't pick fights I cannot win." Ephraim responded casually.

"You obviously lost that one." Ike retorted.

"Did not."

"Please, I was kicking your ass halfway across the field." Hector shook his head.

Mark resisted the urge to slap his head. "Never…again. Or else I'll make you stay late repainting the turf."

"Coach, can we go home now?" Roy asked. "I have a test to study to for."

"Fine." Mark sighed. "We have a lot to work on, obviously. Meet here tomorrow at the same time and be ready to work out."

"Wait, we're still doing this even after it ended disastrously?"

"Yes, Roy. I said you guys couldn't quit, so I'm not going to quit either. That sounds like a fair trade, doesn't it?"

There were slight nods of the heads from everyone, which to Mark seemed like a start towards team building. At least they were able to agree on something.

"Okay, tomorrow we'll make it a goal to get through the _whole _practice. For now, just go home, shower, eat a rich, protein-filled dinner, study, and get some rest. Today's practice was easy, but the 'real fun' starts TOMORROW. You're dismissed."

Mark watched as everyone staggered up from the bench, and limped in pain towards their cars. He glanced down at his watch: five-fifteen. The sun had barely begun to set, and the stadium lights hadn't even turned on yet. Mark sighed for the umpteenth time that day, collected his things, and was about to leave when he was suddenly confronted by Anna and Jake. Anna was smiling, but it looked more like a hopeless smile. Jake was his usual, expressionless self, but Mark could still tell that he did not seem pleased.

"_Please don't tell me they were watching the entire time."_ Mark gulped.

"So, Mark," Anna started with a nervous chuckle. "That was…kind of a hard first day."

"Yes, yes it was." Mark replied, his throat dry.

The smile on her face fell, and Anna said solemnly, "Look, we know there's no hope for this team. If we're wasting your time then…"

"Oh, no. Not at all. I really needed this job." Mark stopped her. "I'm not planning on leaving. We had a rough start, and with students like them, the road to success is going to be…very bumpy. But I'm going to do all I can to smooth everything out. Don't worry, those kids have potential. They just need to improve in some areas, but most importantly they'll need a lot of support. That's why I promised I'm not going to give up on them. It just takes time…a lot of time, but I can assure you that they will get to where we want them to be."

Anna and Jake just stared at him for a long time. However, their serious façade didn't last long as Anna flashed him a cheery smile.

"Thank you, Mark. You have no idea how much you're helping us out." Anna shook his hand and returned back to her office. Jake gave him a smirk and gripped his shoulder.

"You're crazy." He stated. "But…that may be just what this team needs. Trust me, it's been a while since I've seen her smile like that, so I can tell she's placing all her confidence in you. I will as well."

Mark smiled. "Thank you, Jake. And…while you're still here, could I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I'm quite new to the area. Are there any good places to go for a nice, cold beer?"

* * *

**A/N: For the sake of plot, any parents and their children who are close in age in this universe (such as Eliwood (and Lyn, according to my headcanon, but not in this story)-Roy, for example) are portrayed as siblings, or some other close relative.**


End file.
